For the sixth year in a row, Wheaton Warrenville South will open the new season against Hinsdale South, a familiar foe that they’ve enjoyed success against in previous seasons.

The Tigers have dominated the matchup, going 4-0-1 in the openers against the Hornets dating to the start of the 2009 campaign and have won three in a row. That doesn’t mean that WWS head coach Guy Callipari is taking this year’s meeting lightly, though he does hope to draw on his side's prior success.

“I think it’s a good game for us, in that we’ve had success and certainly will try to carry that over,” Callipari said. “We can expect a good, competitive game, and I was hoping that we might have an advantage technically over them.”

With an overall record of 7-11-4 and a fourth-place finish in the DuPage Valley Conference a season ago, Callipari understands that there is plenty of room for growth, particularly in the attacking third of the field. The team struggled to score in 2013.

“The first thing we’d like to do is change those four ties into wins,” he said. “That would get us at .500. I also think there were games that were in the balance. I thought we showed well defensively last year but didn’t do exceptionally well offensively, having scored only 14 goals in 22 games. It’s incredible that we won seven games, considering our offensive output.”

The Tigers return seven players from the 2013 squad, including key players such as seniors Elliot Kettle and Luis Cruz and juniors Anthony Berardi, Mike Bennett and Edwin Huerta. Newcomers senior Haris Hadzic, junior Danny Jimenez and sophomores Carlos Rojas and Charlie Kerby are expected to make an impact as well.

Kettle, Berardi and Hadzic, a transplant from Wheaton North, all play in the midfield and are club players. Kettle and Berardi come from the Chicago Fire academy and Hadzic from the Chicago Magic. Callipari understands the importance of controlling the midfield and expects his trio to push the pace of play and open up opportunities in the offensive end.

“That’s where we believe games are won and lost,” he said. “Everybody is trying to maintain the integrity of the game, and that’s what the challenge is in the midfield: Do you have those kind of technical players that can win out that third of the field? I believe we do. With that kind of experience, Anthony (Berardi), Haris (Hadzic),and Elliot (Kettle), they make a formidable triangle that’s going to be difficult to deal with. If they can remain confident in their roles and find an understanding of each other then we’ve got something there.”

The Tigers will be captained by Kettle, Cruz, Ian Daniels and Darby Anderson for the 2014 campaign.